I Do Not Support AI
I wanted to write a brief blog here to let you all know my stance on AI as it relates to the creative pursuits like art and writing. I apologize, newsletter subscribers, but I felt this was a short enough piece that it would not warrant a separate newsletter release. As the title says, I do not support AI. Let me go into some details below. This is all going to be anecdotal and not based in cited research. There are tons of references out there you can peruse. I only didn’t include it here because I wanted you to know my opinion and stance in a brief post.
I will admit, when AI first started coming out, I didn’t understand it, like most people. I thought it was intriguing and I played around with some AI tools, mostly for art and not for writing. Then I started to learn that those AI tools were being trained on the hard work of actual artists and writers and was basically stealing from them. This is why I do not support the use of AI in writing or art.
All of my novels and short form writing posted to Vocal are written by me. I do not use AI to generate content for my writing. Many of these pieces I’ve been working on for years. Some of them I even hand wrote, including an entire novel. The image below shows each one of the chapter packets folded up and laid out for a manuscript called THE HANGED MAN’S CURSE that features a gay crown prince and his older brother who is a transman and believes he should be the rightful heir to the throne. (This one needs revision before I can get it published for y’all but it is on my list.)
Since I’ve been writing my whole life, I have an extensive backlog of completed manuscripts. I believe it totaled something like 15 last time I counted. If it seems like I am releasing novels incredibly quickly, this is why. For the longest time, I was holding out to be traditionally published*. I’d finish writing a novel, think “this is it,” and then start querying agents meanwhile moving on to write the next idea into a novel. Rinse and repeat. Eventually, when I was getting nowhere in the query trenches, I started looking into small press publishing and self publishing. Then, I joined a local writing group and learned more about hybrid publishing. I liked the idea of hybrid publishing and that’s why I decided to submit to Booklocker. At this point in my journey, though, I had already collected the backlog of completed manuscripts, which I am now working my way through to send out to the world with Booklocker. All this to further illustrate that I write all my stories. I do not use AI.
The other piece of AI that I mentioned here is with art. I do not support AI use for this either. In all my stories, I have thousands of characters. I use the website Toyhouse to collect appearances for my characters. I do have a public profile for my published books but my arsenal of all my characters is private to avoid spoilers for books I’m not ready to share yet. Mostly I collect these character appearances by trading or purchasing existing characters from other Toyhouse users. I also commission real artists to draw my characters for me. Indigo is a great example of this. The artist who drew him for me, Anatnem, is one that I love buying premade designs and customs from.
Additionally, all of my covers are hand painted (electronically) by real live artists that I work with. The cover for Relapse was done by a friend of mine who is also an author (looking to publish later this year and I will definitely link to her when she does). The cover for Countenance of a Hero is also being done by this friend. The cover for my third book that is in progress with Booklocker was done by an artist friend that I commission regularly to draw my characters and other story assets.
So, in closing, I wanted you all to rest easy that I do not use AI and I do not support its usage in the creative ventures at this time. If you have any questions for me, feel free to connect.
